Dystopian Stories: Creative Worlds “Perhaps the greatest utopia would be if we could realize that no utopia is possible” (Jack Carroll) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury are all dystopian stories. In The Hunger Games each year two children are picked from one of the twelve districts to fight to the death in The Hunger Games, to show that they can not rebel against the capital. They are forced to do this to show that they can not rebel against their leader.
Lord of the Flies is about a group of boys stranded n a desert island, throughout their experience they learn that they are naive and barbaric. There Will Come Soft Rains is a short story about a world where robots do everything for you. All the humans are dead, but the world proceeds as if they never left. In all three of these stories the author has created a utopian world that twist into a dystopia. Each of these stories use the characters, setting, and historical context to define their dystopian society. The personality and description of characters can change the entire tone of a story.
Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are the tributes chosen for The Hunger Games. Collins switches what would normally be the male and female roles of the characters. Katniss is the strong, rebellious character. She isn’t much of a people person, she speaks her mind and doesn’t care what people think. Peeta is the sweet, caring, thoughtful character. He loves people and is kind and well mannered.
The characters show how people saw them, people liked Peeta because he was kind and friendly, but Katniss was independent and more reserved. “They’ll either want to kill you, kiss you, or be you. page 74, Suzanne Collins) Peeta was warm and welcoming to his fans, but Katniss neglected their attention. In Lord of the Flies in the beginning of the book all of the boys are illustrated as civilized. Ralph represented leadership and sociality. He was the leader of group, he stayed on task and kept structure throughout the society. Jacks represented violence and dark side of human nature. He wanted power and was willing to do anything for it, including kill. Piggy represents vulnerability, he was overweight and had horrible eyesight. The other boys made fun of him despite his intelligence.
All of these personalities combined, ended in a power struggle and an uncivilized society, where people were ruthless and heartless. Jack turned savage and created his own group of boys. “Which is better-to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is? ” (page 180, William Golding) All Jacks group wanted was fun, while Ralph wanted to have an organized society and be rescued. The characters show the way boys are naive and barbaric. Setting and character are essential to stories. In There Will Come Soft Rains all humans and most living things are dead, ecause of a nuclear bomb, the only thing left are robots.
It takes place in an idyllic neighborhood where technology does everything for you. The robots continue on as if the humans never perished, they still cook the meals, clean the house, make the bed, read poems at night. “Mrs. McClellan, what poem would you like to hear this evening? … Since you express no preference, l’ll pick a poem at random. ” (Ray Bradbury, page 29) The robots in the abandoned world show that humans are not everything, the world will go on if they are not there. The world will not know the difference, time will keep passing.
The Hunger Games takes place in a futuristic United States. They have divided the U. S into twelve districts each with it’s own industry. District twelve, where Katniss and Peeta are from, is the poorest district. Their industry is coal mining. This is the job that most men take up ,which is dirty and dangerous. When this is compared to the capital, who is all about luxury and comfort, people can see who has the influence in the country. This is the way the president shows that he has power over everyone. “We have so little communication with anyone outside our district.
In act, I wonder if the Gamemakers are blocking out our conversation, because even though the information seems harmless, they don’t want people in different districts to know about one another. ” (page 189, Suzanne Collins) The capital separates everyone so that they have control over everything. All three books use the setting to help set up the rest of their story. Lord of the Flies is set on an inhabited island in the middle of the ocean. The setting disconnects the boys from the rest of civilization. The kids need adults to tell them what to do and what not to do, the island blocks them from this.
The boys tried to do what they thought was right, but you can’t be an adult if you aren’t one. “We did everything adults would do. What went wrong? ” (page 45, William Golding) They acted like children, became barbarians. They destroyed the utopia with no adults, school, or chores that they created. The island distanced the boys from the real world, with structure and order. The historical context of books influence the ideas a great deal. Many authors use their background or past events as their historical context. There Will Come Soft Rains relates back to
World War II which had just ended when this story was written in 1950. In the story the author talks about how the world was destroyed in a radioactive explosion. “And the one day the world shook and there was an explosion followed by ten thousand explosions and red fire in the sky and a rain of ashes and radioactivity, and all the happy time was over. ” (page 26, Ray Bradbury) The explosion refers to the nuclear bombs in the war, people thought that was how he world was going to end. The Bradbury used this to show people’s fears about the future, and how they thought the world would crumble apart.
William Golding uses his childhood and career as historical context for Lord of the Flies. He was a teacher at an all boys school, which showed him how savage young boys can behave. He could see they needed structure and order to operate. “Ralph was vexed to find how little he thought like a grownup and sighed again. The island was getting worse and worse. ” (page 128, William Golding) Children can not be adults until they grow up. Golding fought in World War II, it opened his eyes to how willing humans were to turn against each other. He learned people will kill one another without thinking twice.
The historical context of The Hunger Games is from Suzanne Collins family. Most of her family had been in the military, her father, uncle, and grandfather all served in the military. She was used to war and would often see news on the tv of where her dad was fighting. Collins used her experience with war combined with the reality tv we have today to create The Hunger Games. Her experiences are shown through the way Katniss has to leave Prim, her sister, to go somewhere she could potentially die. “Prim, let go,” I say harshly, because this is upsetting me and I don’t want to cry. page 31, Suzanne Collins)
Prim had to deal with Katniss leaving, while Collins had to deal with her dad leaving. Collins used her past as did Golding and Bradbury for the inspiration and historical context for their stories. All three authors used characters, setting, and historical context to justify their dystopian world. The Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies, and There Will Come Soft Rains used their characters to set the tone of the story. They used the setting to define the actions of the characters and the historical context as inspiration for their writing. All three books have ideas with the same structure.